Over the last three years, Theater Oobleck has had the immense pleasure of working with incredible artists from Puerto Rico, on SOS: A Summer Carnival Cruise and on Baudelaire in a Box. Hurricane Maria has left these artists in dire straits. Life in Puerto Rico was already precarious for artists. Now, in addition to living without electricity and limited supplies of food and water, many of these artists have no means of employment and dwindling bank accounts.

These artists have come to Chicago to perform with us, and have wowed us with both their talents and their generosity of spirit. We are now trying to give a little something back, in their hour of desperate need. We hope you will join us on November 15, as our local community of artists comes together for the artists of Puerto Rico.

There are many governmental and non-governmental organizations trying to address the humanitarian crisis in Puerto Rico. We support those efforts. But sometimes it’s necessary to deliver funds directly into the hands of those in need. That is what we will do with your donations. Your contributions will be divided and sent directly to the thirty artists who have worked with us. (For those artists that can’t access their bank accounts, we have people on the ground that can get them the funds.)

*Soup & Bread is a community meal project and a fun, grassroots way to raise money for hunger-relief organizations and other good causes. Bring your appetite, we’ll bring the spoons.

Apocalypse Cabaret related items:

At the end of this letter I am going to ask you to send a donation, and the link for that will look like this.

And I'm also going to tell you about a benefit performance on Wednesday Nov. 15 at the Neo-Futurarium with a link to more info like this.

But first let me say something about catastrophes. When we experience them from a distance, via the news, they are quite well contained, with a starting date and an ending date. The fatalities are counted, the damages tallied, and we move on.

Catastrophes when lived, however, are anything but contained. They spill into every detail of one's life, large and small. Here in Puerto Rico, some 40 days after Maria struck, water, food, school, work, electricity, communication, health care, and income are among the many things that cannot be counted on from day to day. Basic matters of survival dominate. Life has become uncertain. The damages cannot be tallied because they continue to accrue. The dead cannot be tallied, because people continue to die. And to move on, to declare it over? That is a fantasy that few here allow themselves to indulge in.

Over the past few years, Theater Oobleck has had the privilege of working with a large and varied group of Puertorrican artists, producers, and crew on the Spanish-language Baudelaire in a Box shows Noche Deliciosa and El Rey de la Lluvia, and on 2015's SOS: A Summer Clown Cruise, all of which have been performed in both Chicago and San Juan. We are now asking you to support our colleagues as they continue to figure out how to live through this catastrophe. All of them have have been affected and are being affected right now, every day, in new and impossible ways. They have had to remake their lives around the question of survival, and the lives of their families, and the lives of their friends, and the lives of everyone they meet.

On Wednesday Nov. 15, Oobleck will stage an Apocalypse Cabaret at the Neo-Futurarium, 5153 N. Ashland. The show features performances by Rey Andújar, Jean Carlos Claudio, Barrie Cole, David Isaacson, David Kodeski, Diana Slickman, and Edward Thomas-Herrera. The band 80 Foots will play some songs. We'll present a new short puppet play by Mickle Maher, Behold, Where Stands the Usurper's Curséd Head, featuring Samuel Taylor. And the whole thing is emceed by Martha Bayne.

Doors open at 6:30 for Soup & Bread dinner. The show starts at 7:00.

Tickets are here. For advance tickets, you name your price: anywhere from $10-$50. All money raised goes directly to help Oobleck's friends in Puerto Rico.

If you can't make the show, you can still make a tax-deductible donation to the fund here.